Rachel Riley has revealed she once did a "private dance" for Stephen Hawking.

The academic died peacefully at his home in Cambridge in the early hours of March 14 at the age of 76.

He was regarded as one of the world's finest scientific minds and achieved worldwide success and achievement despite being diagnosed with motor neurone disease in his early 20s.

Tributes have been paid from around the world - including many from the world of showbusiness after he gained new fans after appearing in many TV shows, including The Simpsons.

And Countdown star Rachel has said she a night out with him along with Jimmy Carr and her boyfriend – and Strictly Come Dancing dance partner – Pasha Kovalev.

Speaking to The Chris Ramsey Show, Rachel branded it the "weirdest" experience of her life.

"I was filming The Gadget Show," she said.

"So in the morning Ainsley Harriott cooked me three Christmas dinners – in October – and then Jimmy Carr messaged saying he was going out with Stephen Hawking and his family and friends, who are good mates.

"His carers and family are big Strictly fans and I was on Strictly at the time, so I hotfooted it down from Birmingham – I was mid-training – and I took Pasha with me," she continued.

"And then you know what Jimmy’s like, so he just said, “Go on, give us a show”.’

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Rachel laughed: "He put the music on.

"I went to do the dance, and three beats in I accidentally head-butted Pasha.

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He was diagnosed with ALS, a rare form of motor neurone disease, in his 20s and was only given a few years to live.He eventually became wheelchair-bound and dependent on a computerised voice system for communication.

But despite this, he continued to travel the world giving science lectures and writing scientific papers about the basic laws which govern the universe.

His book, A Brief History of Time, sold more than 10 million copies and remained in the Sunday Times bestseller list for a record number of weeks.

His scientific achievements included, with Roger Penrose, showing that Einstein's General Theory of Relativity implies space and time would have a beginning in the Big Bang and an end in black holes.